n, was backed by Peter B. Porter, the young
and exceedingly popular clerk of that county, soon to be dismissed for
his independence; in Albany, John Van Ness Yates, remembering Burr's
support of his father's candidacy in 1789, also came to his
assistance. Zealous and active, however, as these and other friends
were, they were few and weak compared to the army of office-holders
shouting and working for Morgan Lewis. When the returns, therefore,
were in, although Burr carried New York by one hundred, he lost the
State by over eight thousand.[142] A comparison of the vote with the
senatorial returns of 1803 showed that for every Republican voting for
Burr, a Federalist, influenced by Hamilton, voted for Lewis.

[Footnote 142: Morgan Lewis, 30,829; Aaron Burr, 22,139.--_Civil List,
State of New York_ (1887), p. 166.]

It was Burr's Waterloo. He had staked everything and lost. Bankrupt in
purse, disowned by his party, and distrusted by a large faction of the
leading Federalists, he was without hope of recovery so long as
Hamilton blocked the way. There is no evidence that Burr ever saw
Hamilton's confidential letters to Morris and other trusted Federal
leaders, or knew their contents, but he did know that Hamilton
bitterly opposed him, and that his influence was blighting. To get rid
of him, therefore, Burr now seems to have deliberately determined to
kill him.[143]

[Footnote 143: "That all Hamilton's doings were known to Burr could
hardly be doubted. He was not a vindictive man, but this was the
second time Hamilton had stood in his way and vilified his character.
Burr could have no reason to suppose that Hamilton was deeply loved;
for he knew that four-fifths of the Federal party had adopted his own
leadership when pitted against Hamilton's in the late election, and he
knew, too, that Pickering, Griswold, and other leading Federalists had
separated from Hamilton in the hope of making Burr himself the chief
of a Northern confederacy. Burr never cared for the past,--the present
and future were his only thoughts; but his future in politics depended
on his breaking somewhere through the line of his personal enemies;
and Hamilton stood first in his path, for Hamilton would certainly
renew at every critical moment the tactics which had twice cost Burr
his prize."--Henry Adams, _History of the United States_, Vol. 2, pp.
185, 186.]

While in Albany in February to argue the Croswell case, Hamilton had
dined with John Taylor,